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SEPT 2021

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Notes From Friends

Hospice of the Valleys serves hundreds of patients each and every year. We honor them by sharing their stores. They remind us every day of the meaning and purpose in our work and that human connection is at the heart of the hospice experience.

The following are notes Hospice of the Valleys has received from the families of patients that we have been privileged to provide hospice care.

"Dear staff of Hospice of the Valleys, We are extremely grateful to the entire team that took care of our much loved sister. We appreciate all the help and support you have given us. We could not have done the necessary care that she needed without your team."

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"Thank you all for your support - physical and emotional. I have learned a lot from you and have appreciated your kindness."

Hospice of the Valley's Mission

By: Dr. Lynn Euzenas
Director of Spiritual Care & Bereavement Services

Dr. Lynn Euzenas - Hospice of the Valleys

Dear Friends:

On the Hospice of the Valleys webpage you will find our mission statement:

We foster reverence for life, relief of suffering, and compassion in loss for the terminally ill residents and their families in the communities we serve.

I've grown a bit reflective in my eighteenth year working at Hospice of the Valleys. I remember years ago a team of us sitting around the table exchanging thoughts and sharing stories and working diligently to find just the right words to express what we deeply believed was the heart of the hospice work to which we'd dedicated our lives. Today, these words stand as solidly for me as they did then.

Eighteen years is a lifetime when you consider the rapidly changing environment of state and federal regulations which shape healthcare/hospice care and the normal changes over time in personnel and leadership teams, let alone the appearance of an unprecedented pandemic. If it is a good one, the mission statement of an organization will hold it fast during the storms which can come in nearly forty years of service to our community. Our mission statement is a testament to the fact. It is what we do, it is who we are, it is how we serve... how we love. Indeed, each of us carries a copy of it attached to our name badges each day. We all know to abandon it would be to our peril.

What does it mean for this hospice worker?
We foster reverence for life: 
Choice of words is important here. To foster something is to encourage or promote its development...to nourish or feed it. While the word reverence means to hold something in deep respect, its roots from the Old French and Latin give a deeper nuance which is so important here: to reverence means to stand in awe of something. So, to foster reverence for life is to marvel in the miracle of life, and to support and encourage each one in our care to embrace the preciousness of their own life in all of its uniqueness and beauty. One afternoon I heard a sharp crack at my glass door and found on the ground a tiny, what appeared to be broken hummingbird. I knelt and gently picked up the tiny, inert body, and cradled it in the palm of my hand. I wept that such a wondrous and beautiful creature was now still. In what seemed almost just a moment, I was startled by a flurry of motion which suddenly found my hands empty. The bird had just been stunned and was fine. For a few brief seconds, she had stopped to remind me of the reverence for all life.

...relief of suffering... Anyone who has ever been in pain, or been with someone who is in pain, knows the desperation of desire to be freed from that pain. The essential action and intention of hospice care is the relief of suffering: be that from physical, emotional, and /or spiritual pain and distress. There is no more humbling and deeply human experience than watching and hearing and feeling with another the relief of one whose pain has been eased or even lifted. The gift of life returns to them, and light and peace and rest floods into view...blessed relief. We aspire to work towards the relief of suffering in each individual.

...compassion in loss... Hospice acknowledges the sacred duty of extending reverence for a life and relief of suffering to those who must walk the path of loss. Loss is an undeniable companion on a life of love's journeying. To have compassion for someone, quite literally, means to suffer with them. As we empathize with another, we can never fully know what they are feeling. With the outreach of compassion we offer the gift of presence: of simply being with another and feeling in our hearts what it would be like for us to experience what they are now feeling. Hearts reaching out in a caring embrace: the plaintive offering which says, "If I could beat this for you, my friend, I would."

This is more than a mission statement, it is a credo. It is what we call the heart of hospice. It is why we exist in our community. It is the Hospice of the Valleys difference.

You Are What You Consume

By: Dr. Leslee B. Cochrane
Executive Medical Director

Dr. Leslee Cochrane - Hospice of the Valleys

Happiness is an emotion that is directly related to how our brains function. Research shows that when people try to achieve happiness through the pursuit of material possessions, they typically experience increased levels of stress and anxiety, which inhibit healthy brain function. They may also experience additional negative emotions such as envy, resentment and loneliness that further inhibit healthy brain function. On the other hand, once people finally get what they want, they begin to experience fear (another happiness killer) that they will lose it. One of the leading experts in the field of brain function and happiness is Dr. Amit Sood who is the Executive Director for the Global Center for Resiliency and Wellbeing and a former Professor of Medicine and Chair for Student Life and Wellness at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Soo has authored or co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed papers and several books on various topics including happiness and resiliency. Dr. Sood and his associates have conducted extensive research over two decades relating to happiness, which has shown that there are several basic principles involved in how to become happier, stronger and kinder.

A key concept shown by Dr. Sood's research is that developing a better understanding of the connection between brain function and happiness is essential. The best way to achieve authentic and sustained happiness is to understand that happiness is one of the goals of your personal journey; but not the destination. By understanding how our brains work, we can avoid doing things, which work against happiness and strive to develop healthy brain habits such as gratitude, mindfulness and kindness that have demonstrated a strong correlation with increased levels of happiness and resiliency.

Extensive research has shown that the human brain is not able to experience happiness when negative emotions such as stress, fear, anxiety, resentment and loneliness are present. Research has also shown that in order to achieve sustained authentic happiness one must intentionally pursue deep and meaningful relationships, develop meaningful life pursuits and learn how to savor and share their passions with others. Managing negative emotions, which prevent happiness, is a life skill that anyone can learn according to Dr. Sood. To learn more about how to achieve greater happiness and develop healthy brain habits around gratitude, kindness and mindfulness I would encourage you to visit Dr. Sood's website at https://www.resilientoption.com/

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